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Celtic boss Lennon: I decided to take a backseat to end Hampden hoodoo

Celtic manager Neil Lennon thought he would be better suited to taking a back seat as the Glasgow club went about breaking their Hampden jinx on the weekend.

The Hoops beat Dundee United 4-3 in the Scottish Cup semi-final on Sunday with Lennon spending most of the match sitting in a chair at the back of the dugout but he had to end his self-imposed touchline ban when the contest became tense at the death.

"We'd been analysing our previous losses at Hampden and I wondered if it might have been better for me to take a back seat," said Lennon.

"But the ref was making decisions when he was 40 yards away from the incident and his assistant was standing just two yards away.

"And then there was a foul on (eventual match-winner Anthony) Stokes that he didn't give and I'm thinking to myself, 'What's going on here?'

"It was also very frustrating to concede three goals, especially the moment when I didn't think we worked hard enough to stop Jon Daly getting the last of them for United with a header.

"We were making some elementary mistakes and we were missing chances. That always gives encouragement to the other side."